Did You Know The Declaration Of Independence Wasn’t Signed On July 4th?

What did happen on July 4th 1776 was that The Continental Congress approved the final wording of the Declaration of Independence. This was the day they all agreed on all the edits and changes.

July 4, 1776, became the date that was included on the Declaration of Independence, and the fancy handwritten copy that was signed in August (the copy now displayed at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.) It’s also the date that was printed on the Dunlap Broadsides, the original printed copies of the Declaration that were circulated throughout the new nation. So when people thought of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776 was the date they remembered.

So if we celebrated the day that the Declaration of Independence got signed, we’d being celebrating Independence Day on August 2nd of each year.